Team Building Something Better Than Good Bingo Players

The journey of team building contains a certain dynamic that can help empower your team members in their personal lives and the legacy they will ultimately leave behind. Let me illustrate.

Someone once told me about a funeral they had attended. It wasn't so much that they knew the woman who had passed away, but she was the mother of a member of their team and out of respect they attended the funeral.

Appropriate songs were sung and the minister stepped to the pulpit where he began to deliver the woman's eulogy. It was easy to see he struggled with what to say. As it turns out it wasn't that he was emotional, he just didn't know the woman well and very few relatives could recall deeds of heroics or selflessness she had exhibited over the years. Her life might well have been described as self absorbed and unremarkable.

In the end the minister briefly mentioned her role as mother and an employee at a local factory, but then he said something rather peculiar, "She was really good at bingo."

Bingo, by its very nature is a game of chance. There is no prevailing skill in playing the game. Letters and numbers are called and you fill in the blanks until someone gets a bingo. Yes, the game can be fun, but to have one of your best life moments described as a good bingo player may not be the legacy one might hope to leave. Yet, one of the things most recalled about this poor woman was a game that required no skill. I do not bring this up as a point of humor, but rather a sad commentary on a life without purpose.

No one could seem to come up with the very things that could help identify her purpose and legacy in life. There just wasn't much to work with.

Sadly the daughter agreed. Her mother had never really been one to invest in the lives of her children or grandchildren. She didn't care for other people and was not generally thought of as a kind person.

This brings us to team leaders. You have a choice to be selfish or giving in relation to your team members. You have a choice to invest in your team or let them struggle on their own without any encouragement from you.

You could leave them on their own, but why would you want to?

At the end of your life someone will eulogize you. Will they have something better than, "He or she was really good at Bingo?" Will you be thought of as a kind leader?

You and your team members are in a silent, but steady pursuit of a legacy. That legacy demands that the sum total of the team efforts creates something much greater than a list of individual talent and statistics.

This same concept should follow all team members into their personal lives because our individual and corporate legacy is comprised of something more valuable than the winnings of a game of bingo.